The official blog of the Campaign for the American Reader, an independent initiative to encourage more readers to read more books.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Top 10 cultural journeys

Susheila Nasta is the editor and founder of Wasafiri magazine, which marks its 25th anniversary this month. "Wasafiri," the Kiswahili word for travellers, captures the magazine's vision to focus on writing as a form of "cultural travelling."

For the Guardian, she named a top ten list of "books that take her on a globe-spanning, literary adventure." One title on the list:

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Pecola Breedlove is an 11-year-old black girl growing up in Ohio in the 1940s who longs to have the blue eyes she thinks will transform her tragically torn life. Narrated from a variety of perspectives - black and white - Morrison's first book is a poetic evocation of how Pecola attempts to rise above the frames of the myopic culture of whiteness that define her. An intimate African-American classic which looks forward to Morrison's award-winning novel, Beloved.